Thanksgiving 2009

We usually spent America Thanksgiving (have to say that here as the Canadians, and there are loads of them, celebrate it about 5 weeks earlier) at Cheri's house. For us it is quite nice as we get to do the whole drive to family thing. It makes it feel more like Thanksgiving. This year however, Cheri was going to be in Vietnam with Marie's parents during that time. We were not sure what we were going to do. In the end we were saved by our good friend Victor. We still got to do the drive to Thanksgiving thing and had a great time as well. The highlight of the afternoon was playing a game of touch football with the kids. I have not done that in years and Jack and I had a blast. We came back to the house and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Sling Box. Very cool. Just like being at home. Although the parade is more like a show than a parade. Kind of overdone. The dinner was great. Unfortunately I have no dinner pics. Oops. After dinner we all sat down for a hardcore game of American Idol on the Wii. As you can see from the pics Sarah and her friends had a blast. All in all a really good Thanksgiving.

Jack Kicks the Ball

Jack and I break for the ball!

American Idol - Notice Sarah's hair flying in the back.
The tolken family Thanksgiving pic.

Jack's 9th Birthday

Jack decided for his birthday he wanted to have a baseball party at the beach. So we did just that. Invited some of his good friends and had a great time. The weather was perfect and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

KG Concert

I have officially been teaching for over 15 years now. Yes ladies and gentlemen we are all getting old. In my career I have taught and coached quite a bit: 7th, 9th and 11th grade history - 7th grade special education - Kindergarten through 9th grade Physical Education - Coached high school boys and middle school cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field - middle school intramural football, floor hockey and softball and my favorite middle school girls basketball. But nothing and I mean nothing could prepare me for what they asked me to do this year - KINDERGARTEN MUSIC!!

I jumped in with two feet. It was a canned curriculum. Just turn the page and keep going. So far it has turned out to be one of the most fun things I have done in my career. In the class we sing little songs and play the triangle and rhythm sticks. I close the door and there is little to no embarrassment. Until this past week. The fall show. I had to teach them to sing a song and play instruments. We had been working on it for weeks. I decided to teach them some Elvis. It was pretty cool. About 350 parents showed up for the big show. Here are some pics.

The BMR

Six or seven years ago Cheri had come back to visit the states for repat. We were hanging out one night and I was regaling her with stories of my past years' ski trip. For most of the years that I was living back in the states I would plan a weekend away on my own. Well not really on my own. It would usually involve 20 or so of my best drinking buddies. We would either go white water rafting on the Upper Gauley River in West Virginia or go skiing in the mountains of Vermont. Those trips were always a blast and usually took me days to recuperate from. So this night Cheri says to me that if I ever move to the Middle East (I guess she could see it coming) that I would have to do this thing called the Bahrain Marathon Relay. You go over to Bahrain and party for the entire weekend and then run a whopping 15 minutes as part of a 16 person team running a marathon. Sounded like fun back then.

So this past weekend I got my chance. I managed to get hooked up with some people here in RT who were interested in forming a team along with two teams from Dhahran. What people did not tell me was that by the time you got through the Wednesday night party at Senor Paco's, the Thursday lunch party at the British Club, Thursday happy hour at Bennigans and the Thursday night bath tub party (At one of the rented apartments - bathtub filled with ice and beer. Not a good thing the night before a race.) you are in absolutely no condition to do anything. Here I am somewhere between the British Club and going to bed. Looks like I was having fun.

So now it is race day and I have to be up at 6AM. Everytime I take a step I feel like 100 hammers are pounding on my noggin. To make matters worse because it is a relay and I am running leg 5 they have to drive me out into the middle of the desert and leave me there to wait for ONE HOUR!! No water, no shade. I will let the race pictures speak for themselves. What a mess.

I am getting to old for this. In the end a good time. Don't think I will be going back though. At least not for the running part!

Happy Halloween!

Daddy's Little Pumpkin...I think they have the same smile in this picture!



My sister and her "mini-me"....Anna!

The coolest part about Sarah's costume was that we actually bought all the stuff in Egypt!
And Jack came up with his costume idea himself :)

The first time we've dressed up for a Halloween party in years!!!

Earrings!

For Sarah's fourth birthday, she got her ears pierced, so this summer, it seemed fitting to do the same for Anna. When I asked Anna if she wanted to get her ears pierced, she was so excited. She talked about it all the way to the mall. Granted, she had no idea we were going to put holes in her ears, but she was happy up until the 2 girls had the piercing guns up to her ears and then before she could react, it was over. There were no tears and she LOVES her purple flower earrings!

This is her being silly waiting for the girls to get the earrings ready.

Her treat after being so brave, was going for a ride :)

Here are the beautiful ears....notice the earrings are now blue....she's lost not 1, but 2 pairs of earrings at this point!

First Day of School

Here is our token first day of school pictures of Sarah & Jack in our front yard:

This year we have another 'First Day of School Picture' to add as Anna started preschool for the first time. This is her first day of school right before I took her. I was nervous as we do EVERYTHING together, but she walked in with no tears and when I went to go pick her up after 2 1/2 hours, she exclaimed, "Preschool is so fun!"

Disney World, August 2009

For seven days, the five of us went down to Disney World. We had a blast! We stayed at the Beach Club which was great and since it was only 200 yds. from the entrance of Epcot, which was super convenient.

One of our highlights that week was watching Anna see Minnie Mouse for the first time. She was so excited, she could hardly stand it! As you can see from the pics, Sarah & Jack were good sports and weren't too cool to pose with Mickey and the gang.

Of course we had to hit the Hoop De Doo Revue for dinner one night. Steve & I spent the whole night cracking up at Sarah & Jack cracking up at the show - they were too cute!

When Steve told me he wanted to go to Germany for Oktoberfest this year, I don't think he meant the one in Disney...

But if you know my hubby, he made the best of it:)

Some of our favorite attractions were the Nemo & friends at Epcot and Jack's favorite from last time: the Buzz Light Year ride.

I know she's young, but she's quite the driver! :)

Steve giving his best...

Mr. Cool:

The token castle pose:

What a great week! I know its cliche - but really, how awesome is Disney?!

Summer 2009

Wow, sorry we haven't posted anything for 3 months, now...it's been a busy summer! We started off our summer with the kids & I going back with my older sister 10 days before Steve, so that we could squeeze in a visit to my younger sister in NC and get a couple extra days with family and friends.
Steve of course partied like a rock star for those 10 days. As a lot of families leave before their hubby (to gain extra vacation days), Steve hung out with other 'once-a-year-bachelors'. I had visions of them sitting around eating cereal in their boxers, lamenting how much they missed their wives and children.....yeah, right. The guys would take turns having dinner and would even be organized enough to buy tenderloin from the local butcher, marinate it and grill it....all this with pants on, no doubt! And I'm pretty sure the wives and children never came up in conversation. :)

The first full day back in the States, we went to the zoo. It was such a gorgeous day and helped us all get on track with the time change.

The kids and I had a great time visiting my sister and her family down south. Of course, Grandma cooked for everyone while the kids played, played and played! For the majority of our time in the states, we would travel back and forth from PA to NJ to visit friends and family.

Here are our monkeys proudly showing off their monkey bread:

Anna trying to keep up with her big girl cousins:

All the cousins on Grandmom's porch stairs:

We were able to catch a Phillies game with Joe, Val & Missy:

Joseph, Sarah, Jack & Tony running the bases after the game - very cool!

Anna showing Pop-Pop one of her new moves on the dance floor:

It was a great summer and we're already looking forward to next year!

What does it feel like at 118 - not good.

As part of our PE program I have to teach a unit of swimming. Sounds great. Two weeks at he pool. Unfortunately I am not able to do this unit (outside) until mid-June. I have to wait for students who go to boarding school all year to return to Saudi. They get hired to assist at the pool and they don't get back until mid-June. I have 24 kids per class. Easily 2/3 of each class have limited to no swim ability. That means for safely purposes I have to stay up on the deck so I can see them all in the water. And if you know me I tend to sweat a bit. Well take a look at the screen shot I took yesterday off my computer. Gives the date, time and temp. Yep. It's officially hot here and I get to spend two weeks standing in it. Yuck!